SriLankan Airlines hopes to finalise talks to lease two more A330 aircraft to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) within the course of the week, said Chief Executive Officer Capt Suren Ratwatte. One aircraft has already been leased to PIA, although the finer details such as the period of the lease, etc are to be worked out [...]

SriLankan to lease 2 more A330 aircraft to PIA

SriLankan Airlines hopes to finalise talks to lease two more A330 aircraft to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) within the course of the week, said Chief Executive Officer Capt Suren Ratwatte.

One aircraft has already been leased to PIA, although the finer details such as the period of the lease, etc are to be worked out in the near future. “Hopefully, we will have three aircraft leased to PIA in stages, in the coming weeks,” Capt Ratwatte said. SriLankan has already said that, leasing out the aircraft was part of restructuring the debt-ridden airline. The lease payments on the A330s were too costly. SriLankan will be left with 10 wide-bodied A330s and 10 narrow-bodied aircraft.

“Staring mid-next year, we are adding a couple of narrow-bodied A320s,” he explained. “We will continue to operate a daily flight to London. We will have long-haul flights to Japan, Beijing and Shanghai, as well as expand to other destinations. We are evaluating all this and decide later this financial year.”

Also, as part of the restructuring, SriLankan has identified overstaffed areas and were awaiting Government approval to rightsize the company, which has over 7,000 employees. “This means to have the right number of people needed to run an airline,” Capt Ratwatte said. “The moment the Government gives the go-ahead, we will do it.” Rightsizing could involve voluntary retirement schemes and “various other things”.

The Government expects to enter into a public-private-partnership for SriLankan soon. It has received several responses, consequent to its call for Expressions of Interest, for both SriLankan and budget carrier, Mihin Lanka, which excludes ground-handling.